Heartbeat
by Scribbles-by-Kate
Summary: Belle learns what Rumple has been up to and returns something that should never have been taken. One shot. Angsty.


I don't own _Once Upon a Time_: I'm simply playing in the world Adam and Eddy have created.

**Heartbeat**

'Are you sure you're ok? You seem kinda jumpy lately.'

'Well, who wouldn't be jumpy with a snow queen running around the place? I'm fine, Swan: stop worrying.'

Emma nods, but she can tell there's something he's not telling her. That's why she dragged him out here: kind of hard to talk with her parents, a new baby, and Elsa in the apartment. They're standing on the landing and she's looking up at him, but he's looking down, hiding something.

'Look, Killian–'

The sound of footsteps cuts her off: heels, actually, clattering slowly up the stairs. She looks over the railing and sees a mass of brown curls.

'Belle?'

The petite woman turns in the stairwell to come the rest of the way up to the landing. Her face is white, her lips nearly drained of colour, and Emma can hear the shaky, laboured way she's breathing, and she sees her red eyes: Belle has been crying.

'What's wrong?' she asks immediately: 'what happened, Belle?'

She hears a sharp intake of breath to her right and looks at Killian. He's staring at Belle. No, not at Belle: at the object she holds in her hands. It's a wooden box: a wooden box with something glowing red inside it, and… _beating_. A heart? Why would Belle have a heart in a box?

'You know,' Killian says to Belle.

'Yes,' Belle says, her normally musical voice flat, toneless, 'and I came to return this.' She holds out the box to him, her expression pained, as though she can't bear to be holding it. The beating is loud, a heavy, ominous sound, an indication of something very, very wrong, rather than the soothing sound it should be.

'Is that…a heart?' Emma asks, though she knows, and doesn't want to know.

Killian takes the box from Belle and sighs, as if relieved. 'Mine, to be precise.'

Emma nods dumbly: part of her knew this, but why did _Belle_ have Killian's heart?

'How did you get it?' he asks Belle, frowning.

'He gave it to me, Captain,' she says, lifting her chin in a gesture that Emma has come to associate with defiance and determination in the other woman.

'Who?' Emma asks, though she's pretty sure she knows the answer, and, again, doesn't want to know.

'Rumplestiltskin.' Killian nearly growls: 'he took it, as part of his plan to rid himself of the dagger. He would have taken you too, Swan.'

Emma ignores that bit for a moment. 'But he gave you the dagger,' she says to Belle.

'No,' Belle whispers. 'He gave me a fake.' A tear runs down her cheek, quickly followed by another.

Emma remembers what he said: _I fear she's quite likely wrong_. All this time he's been lying: all this time he's had the real dagger. Emma knows how it feels to have your trust betrayed: Belle must be in so much pain right now, and yet she came to give Killian's heart back.

'You said he gave the heart to you?' she asks gently, because that's something at least.

Belle nods. 'Yes.'

'Why?' Killian asks.

Emma knows the answer to that, but waits for Belle to give it.

'Because I asked him to.'

'Why would he listen to you? All he cares about is power.' Killian is bitter.

Emma shoots him a look. 'Killian, you could show some gratitude: she just gave you your heart back.'

'No, he's right: partly, at least,' Belle says very quietly, sounding so tired and sad. 'He's always cared about power, but I _know_ he loves me too.' Emma hears the tiny note of conviction in her voice. 'And now he needs to decide what he wants more.' Even now, Belle still has faith in him, or is trying to keep her faith alive. It must take some strength to love a man like Gold.

'You told him that?' Emma asks.

Belle nods. 'I told him he had to decide for himself, but I don't know what he'll choose.' And now her body lurches with her sob and Emma can almost see her uncertainty written on her face. 'He said it was all to protect me, because he can't lose me like he lost Bae.' She believes that, Emma sees, and Emma does too, because Belle is all he has left now.

Emma clasps the other woman's hand. She saw Rumplestiltskin that day: she saw what seeing his son die did to him, and she can understand him never wanting to go through that again, because she sure as hell doesn't.

'It's gonna be ok, Belle,' she soothes.

'Swan, did you not hear the part where I said he would have taken you too?' Killian demands. 'He has this hat: he was going to suck you into it when you wanted to get rid of your magic, but you decided to keep it and he's been forcing me to collect magic for him instead. How can you be ok with that?'

'I'm not,' Emma tells him, 'but he hasn't tried to take my magic since I decided to keep it, and he gave Belle your heart to give back to you: that tells me that he can come back from this. He's been through a lot, Killian, and he's family.'

'Well, if you ask me, he's nothing but a monster,' Killian retorts, 'and when I find him–'

'Killian, stop it,' Emma interjects, feeling Belle tense at the word and his threatening tone.

'You won't find him, Captain,' Belle tells him: 'he's gone.'

'Gone?' Emma asks.

Belle nods, tears trickling down her cheeks. 'He left me a message: he said that he was sorry and that he was leaving. I don't know where he went, or what he might do, or…'

'Leaving, as in leaving Storybrooke?'

Belle nods again and trembles, choking on her tears. Emma pulls her into her arms.

'It's gonna be ok,' she promises, though she has absolutely no idea how.

Belle cries, and Killian's heart beats louder…louder…_louder_.

**Thanks for reading :)**


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